“The Chinese just love features,” Michael Clendenin, the managing director of technology consultancy RedTech Advisors, tells Reuters. “They want their phone to have 50 different things that they’re never going to use. Apple just doesn’t play that game. Unfortunately, if you want to hit the mainstream market in China, and you want a lot of market share percentage points, you have to offer the Swiss army knife of cellphones.”

Samsung’s willingness to pump out an enormous variety of smartphone models is also helpful since it can successfully market its devices to both high-end consumers with the Galaxy S IV and to less wealthy consumers with its horde of cheap Android smartphones.

Finally, Samsung has been much more accommodating of Chinese mobile operators than Apple has by showing a willingness to modify its devices to meet the needs of every carrier. So while Apple has been bargaining hard with China Mobile over revenue sharing, Samsung has been happily willing to accept less revenue if it means access to bigger markets.